Notebooks and Notetaking

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D is for… Doane Paper

I had wanted to do Doane Paper for D properly – but I still need to get a hold of a notebook to try out.

Doane Paper has both grids and lines and has the possibility of being the best of both worlds as i love Quadrille Notebooks.

You can download a sample of their paper on their website which is how they got started – but sometimes you really need to test the paper properly… Being based in the UK I was disappointed to find that their international orders have a minimum order of $100 (and then $50 for shipping) but I am happy that they are trying to reach out to us. Whoo!!

The reason I wanted to shine a spotlight on Doane Paper is because they have a great story…

“In 2003 Doane Paper’s founder Chad Doane is in a meeting to discuss final changes to a retail packaging project when he notices that half the room is using lined legal pads while the other half is using grid paper notebooks. What if the two stationery patterns are combined onto a single sheet so the user can utilize the two patterns simultaneously? After the meeting Doane makes some notes and packs away the idea for a rainy day.

After Doane’s dream of building a midwest based skateboarding company crashes and burns in 2005 he’s suddenly left with a creative void. Sifting through his “idea journal” he finds the notes scribbled down after that 2003 retail packaging meeting. On November 8, 2005 Doane sits in front of a daunting blank Adobe Illustrator window and hashes out the original Grid + Lines pattern. To test the new stationery pattern he builds a simple website where anyone can download a free PDF sheet of Doane Paper.

Soon visitors to doanepaper.com who had downloaded the free PDF sheet start to request that the Grid + Lines pattern be placed on a physical product like a sheet of notebook paper. Doane decides on the idea of a writing pad and finds a 50 year old Arkansas based school supply manufacturer to produce the first run of Doane Paper writing pads. The writing pad is an immediate success and is Doane Paper’s sole product from the spring of 2006 until the fall of 2008.”